Saturday, April 2, 2011

Three New Temples Announced for Fort Collins, Colorado; Meridian, Idaho; and Winnipeg Manitoba

This morning President Monson announced new temples for Colorado, Idaho, and Manitoba.

The Fort Colllins Colorado Temple will service members living in northern Colorado and southeastern Wyoming. A total of seven or eight stakes will likely be included in the potential temple district. Church growth in the area has been slow as most new wards and branches in Colorado have been organized in the Denver metropolitan area over the past decade. Colorado was formerly the state with the most members without a temple.

The Meridian Idaho Temple will most likely service members living in the western Boise metropolitan area. Church growth has been rapid in the area primarily due to strong population growth over the past two decades. Approximately 10 to 15 new stakes will likely be included in the new temple district. The new temple will become Idaho's fifth LDS temple.

The Winnipeg Manitoba Temple was purposed by President Hinckley in 1998 and will likely include one stake and one district, which would make the temple district the smallest in the Church. Church growth has been very slow in Manitoba, with only one stake in the province. There are now nine temples in Canada announced, under construction, or operating.

For more information about today's temple announcements, visit the Church's Newsroom.

I served 16 months of my mission in down town Winnipeg. I returned just over 2 years ago and this announcement brings me so much joy and hope for those good people I taught.It may be the smallest district in the church but through their faith, I saw God work miracles.

None of these were templea that I was expecting. Then again I am not the Prophet. I thought Pocatello would get one in Idaho next. The others I was leaning towards as possibilities was DR of Congo, Paris France, Nicaragua, Rio de Janiero Brazil, and Cedar City Utah. Maybe in October or possibly one or two before then.

I actually called Ft. Collins, & I'm not surprised by Meridian at all. Looking at where stakes are, Ft. Collins is more central to the stakes than Cheyenne, & both the Denver & Boise districts have 30 stakes. Gong by where the stakes are, those locations are perfect for medium-sized temples.

Fort Collins and Meridian (which surprised me at first) are part of a wave of second-city temples in the neighborhoods of small 80s temples that are not feasible to expand further. Concepcion, Urdaneta, Trujillo (why have they never expanded tiny Lima???), and Quetzaltenango all fit this bill. Then you have Cordoba, which is being built at the same time as a massive expansion of the BA temple. The interesting thing is that in most cases, the temple in the smaller city is significantly larger than the temple in the capital city.

I hope that in a few years, we will have a similar overcrowding problem with the 2000-era small temples :-)

I think the Meridian temple will have a temple district in the 17-18 stake range, not 10-15. All the stakes north or west of Meridian should be in the district, I counted 17 stakes (Meridian 7, Nampa 4, Caldwell 2, Weiser, and the 3 stakes from Oregon. Emmet is a maybe.

I was shocked to see that Winnipeg got a temple, it only has 1 stake, but then I found out that it is a big stake. The 2009 church almanac says there are 4,532 members in Manitoba. There are 12 units in the stake, 7 wards and 5 branches. Those stats are 2 years old, so it is probably even bigger now. The 2009 church almanac also says that there are 4,548 members in Finland and 4,362 members in Denmark, both countries have their own temples. There are more units in Finland and Denmark (30 and 23 respectivley) I doubt that the inactivity rate in Manitoba is less than Europe, I bet rather the wards are larger in Winnipeg.

Also about the Winnipeg temple, it will be closer for members in Northern North Dakota and Minnasota. So even though the numbers of stakes in the temple district will be 1, members from the Grand Forks(ND) and Warroad (MN) wards will go to Winnipeg. The same can be said for some wards in Eastern Ontario, whose stake might not be in the Winnipeg temple district.

I too was surprised, and Matthew is right, there is the potential to serve members in surrounding areas.

However, the main fear I have felt amongst the membership, which is far outweighed by the excitement, is the weight this will put on the membership. We have about a 20% activity rate. Our largest ward has about 150 average attendance.

Nonetheless, this is great news for our city, and just may spur some fringe members to fuller activity.

The Winnipeg temple will probably be closed most of the time like the Bismark North Dakota temple. That temple is open thursday and friday night and Saturday morning and afternoon. If the Winnipeg temple will be open more than that they will certainly have to bring in some senior missionaries to help staff the temple. The Helsinki temple has 3 or 4 senior missionary couples who help run things. I bet Winnipeg gets a few as well.

About Me

My interest in researching the growth of the LDS Church began in 2002. I began this blog in late 2007 to provide a forum to discuss LDS growth developments and share information. I have also worked for The Cumorah Foundation since 2009 providing research assistance and resource development on LDS growth and missionary work. Since this time I have been interviewed by various media organizations and have co-authored with David Stewart our comprehensive work Reaching the Nations: International Church Growth Almanac: 2014 Edition. I have a Masters Degree in Psychology and a Bachelors Degree in Psychology and Geography. I am currently working on completing my doctorate in clinical psychology.